FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT MIGRANT WORKERS - PAGE 5

One of Russia's leading medical schools advised its many foreign students to stay in their dormitories for three days into the weekend, fearing they could be attacked by neo-Nazis and skinheads marking the anniversary Friday of Adolf Hitler's birth. The warning issued by the almost 250-year-old IM Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy, which suspended classes for its 1,940 foreign students, was a reminder of recent xenophobic and racist violence targeting students and migrant workers.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's domestic migrant labor force could power consumer spending growth in the world's second biggest economy if workers had better access to basic welfare services in the cities where they live and work, a new government report says. The 230 million-strong migrant workforce drives China's economy, but a lack of access to education, health and other services tied to the country's strict household registration - or hukou - system forces massive saving, restraining Beijing's efforts to shift growth's focus to consumption from investment.

China's legislature passed a sweeping new labor law Friday that strengthens protections for workers across its booming economy, rejecting pleas from foreign investors who argued that the measure would reduce China's appeal as a low-wage, business-friendly industrial base. The new labor contract law, enacted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, requires employers to provide written contracts to their workers, restricts the use of temporary laborers and makes it harder to lay off employees.

By Brian Homewood ZURICH, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Qatar has been given two weeks to provide a report on how it has improved working conditions for labourers in the 2022 World Cup host nation. "FIFA expects to receive information on the specific steps that Qatar has taken since president Sepp Blatter's last trip to Doha in November 2013 to improve the welfare and living conditions of migrant workers," world soccer's ruling body said in a statement on Thursday. "The application of international norms of behaviour is a FIFA principle and part of all of FIFA's activities and is expected from all hosts of its events.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner on Friday condemned a reference to migrant workers made by fellow Republican Representative Don Young, calling the comments "offensive and beneath the dignity of the office. " Young referred to migrant workers as "wetbacks" in a radio interview aired in his home state of Alaska on Thursday, but issued an apology late in the day after criticism. The term is considered a slur against illegal immigrants who crossed into the United States from Mexico.

For a decade now, migrant workers have called a bunk house at Straus Tree Farms in Lake in the Hills home. But by spring, eight to 16 farm hands who have lived on the property may have to look for other lodgings. The village Zoning Board recommended Monday night to deny a request by Fox Ridge Nursery Inc., also known as Straus Tree Farms, to build a nicer bunk house for seasonal workers. The Village Board will decide whether to approve the proposal. What seemed to be a kind gesture from the tree farmer has caught the village off guard.

BEIJING, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Three major cities plan a limited relaxation of restrictions on the children of migrant workers seeking to enter university-track schools, China National Radio reported on Sunday, an apparent response to protests over discriminatory practices. High school students are restricted to taking competitive university exams where they are registered, a stipulation that effectively locks the children of migrant workers out of a path to higher education in the cities.

Eleven blacks have been killed in fierce fighting between rival groups in the black township of Tsakane 35 miles southeast of Johannesburg, police said Wednesday. Another black was reported to have been killed in Graaff-Reinet in the eastern part of Cape Province. Police said three men were killed Tuesday in Tsakane and eight others Wednesday in clashes between township residents and migrant Zulu and Xhosa workers who live in hostels there on a short-term basis. Residents burned down one of the men's hostels Wednesday and demanded that all of the migrant workers leave the township.

(Corrects spelling of "alley" in third paragraph) By Hui Li and Ben Blanchard BEIJING, March 27 (Reuters) - A one-room shack with a single, bare light bulb on a non-descript Beijing side street is 29-year-old Chinese migrant worker Zhang Xuefang's best recourse to medical care. Not recognised as a Beijing resident, she does not qualify for cheaper healthcare at government hospitals, and her hometown is too far away to take advantage of medical subsidises there. Like millions of other migrant workers, Zhang, on whose labour China's economic boom depends, is forced into a seedy and unregulated world of back alley "black clinics" if she falls ill. The issue highlights the two-tier nature of China's overburdened health care system and goes to the heart of a heated debate about how to reform the contentious "hukou" system of household registration, a cornerstone of government policy for decades which essentially legalises discrimination between urban and rural residents.